Kolkata: The state Information Technology & Electronics (IT&E) department wants the business community based in Malda to use the technological infrastructure of its IT park there, that has recently become fully operational.
"There is a reasonable presence of the business community in Malda. With some sort of technological upgrade, they can easily give a boost to their business. So, we are encouraging them to adopt the plug and play technology at the IT park," a senior official of the state IT department said.
The IT department, in association with WEBEL and NASSCOM, recently held a sensitisation programme at the Malda IT park in Naldubi. Senior officials of the department, WEBEL and NASSCOM addressed the local IT entrepreneurs, to make them aware of the various initiatives and skill building programmes across the state and specifically for Malda.
A youth, originally hailing from Malda and presently working with Infosys Bhubaneshwar, attended the workshop and evinced interest in taking up space at the IT park.
"We are delighted because though the park has started functioning for a little more than a week, it already has more than 70 percent occupancy. 24 companies have already been allotted space at the park, which is dedicated to IT, Electronics and Emerging Technologies," the official added.
The IT park has 42,000 sq ft of built-up space and the G+4 facility is constructed over 0.58 acres of land. Two floors in the building are dedicated to the plug and play module, keeping in mind the need of IT startups to remain asset light.
It may be mentioned that the state government, as a policy, has decided to spread the activities of IT to tier-II and tier-III cities in the state. "We firmly believe that focus on the IT sector will promote the huge technology potential of the local youth and create further opportunities for employment and wealth generation
for its people," the official maintained.
In order to encourage IT and IT based entrepreneurship, WEBEL, under the aegis of IT&E department, has developed IT parks across Bengal. 14 new IT parks have been developed since 2012 and 9 more have been approved.
Besides, the state IT department has been taking multiple initiatives such as setting up a Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, setting up electronic manufacturing clusters across the state, capacity building in IT and promoting emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Fintech, IoT etc. all with the intention of giving a boost to the technology industry in the state.